QUESTION: I regularly pay with Vancouver's pay by phone app. However, i have noticed that once in a while, the change in license plate (i have two vehicles) does not register. So the other day, I paid for parking and all was good, except it in fact did not register the change so I parked my other license plate. Sure enough, I got a ticket.
However, I looked up teh bylaw and it does not state that license plate must match the app... however, I did not realize that I only had 14 days to fight the ticket. That period has passed - does anyone know if I have any recourse now that it has passed.
For reference, the bylaw states:
pay by phone by calling the telephone number on the parking meter, and recording the person’s account number, password, parking meter number, and the amount of parking time required;
ANSWER:
City of Vancouver pay for parking information.
When I read the site it warns:
When you pay for parking by phone, the license plate on your active transaction must match the license plate on the vehicle in the parking spot. If they do not match, you can be ticketed. The automated system will read the plate to you before asking for confirmation.
The emphasis above is mine, but obviously you must exercise care in using this system!
The City of Vancouver's Parking Meter Bylaw in the Interpretation section says in paragraph (11):
"Pay by Phone", or grammatical variations of that term, means a system established by or on behalf of the city under which a person may:
(ii) pay the fee for parking a vehicle in a metered space by telephone in accordance with the requirements of that system.
So, it would seem that it is up to you to make sure that the plate of the parked vehicle is correctly registered with the system.
For a provincial violation ticket, if you can show that the opportunity to dispute has passed and through no fault of your own, you were unable to do so, a dispute date can be set after the fact. However, parking tickets don't fall under this scheme.
The dispute process for Vancouver doesn't mention anything similar.
The process of serving the ticket involves leaving it on the vehicle. All sorts of things can happen to it between being left and you returning to your vehicle that would prevent you from having knowledge of it. Fairness would dictate that there must be some way of dealing with a situation like this after the fact.
The 14 day dispute period may be shown on the back of your copy of the ticket. I couldn't find a picture of the back of the ticket on line, but I did find a picture of the front and know that it is not printed there. Have a look at yours and let us know.
Since it appears that you did have knowledge of the ticket and made an error with the licence plate, you are in contravention of the bylaw and liable to pay the ticket.
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